Yayoi Kusama is one of the world's most expensive female artists and a national treasure in Japan. Her bright red wig and quirky polka dot suit made her one of the most recognizable artists.

In 2016, Yayoi Kusama was the only visual artist on Time magazine's list among the 100 most influential people. Yayoi Kusama has got a gift for outstanding artistic talent, works in many artistic fields, including painting, sculpture, prints, installation, performance art, and literature. Her works blend many artistic styles, such as surrealism, minimalism, pop art, zero society, and nihilistic movement, which cannot be easily classified or imitated.

Having suffered from mental illness since childhood, she once admitted that art was her cure, saying: "If it weren't for art, I would have killed myself." At the age of 92, she is still working on her art business and will have four exhibitions this year, including her large outdoor sculpture exhibition, Kusama: Cosmic Nature, at the New York Botanical Garden at the beginning of April, which features polka dot plant sculptures and a whole new "Infinite Mirror Room."

Although these exhibitions are time-limited, Kusama's public sculptures are permanently open in many parts of the world, and several galleries have permanent collections of her art. We make a list of 16 great places for you, and maybe one or two of them are near you.

Let's enjoy the ecstasy of a speckled world.

01. "Cosmic Nature" at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) | New York

The installations of Yayoi Kusama will last eight months at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) through Oct. 31, 2021. The artist is fascinated with the natural world all her life. Giant floral sculptures blend perfectly with her signature polka-dot installation.

▲Obsession with Flowers, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

Spotted pumpkins and psychedelic flowers are among the most symbolic pieces in Kusama's "Cosmos of Nature" exhibition, which also features four new works by the Japanese artist. Visitors are welcomed by a new installation called "Dancing Pumpkins," which uses tentacle-like legs to lift its dark and yellow torso aloft.

▲I Want to Fly into Space, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

▲shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

Among the more interactive creations, Kusama's first-ever enclosed greenhouse and a new infinity room using natural light and stained glass.

▲Pumpkins call for love beyond infinity, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

▲Star Pumpkin, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

▲Ascension of Polkadots on the Trees, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

▲Narcissus Garden, shot by Heather Sten, via The New York Times

02. Most Famous Pumpkin in the World | Naoshima

▲Pumpkin, 1994, Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan

When it comes to the public sculpture of Yayoi Kusama, the Great Pumpkin on Naoshima, Japan, is probably the first one that pops into your mind. Whether you've been to the Seto Inland Sea Art Festival or not, you've probably seen this pumpkin while surfing the Internet.

The yellow polka-dot pumpkin with vivacious colors faces the sea and, rather than being out of place with nature, has a sense of reality that allows it to blend into nature. It is affectionately known as the "pumpkin at the end of the world."

Not only sitting the yellow pumpkin there but there is also a giant red polka-dot pumpkin near the dock, which is known as the "Keeper of Naoshima". Today, the two pumpkins have become the unofficial symbol of Naoshima, making the sea and island a natural art space that attracts thousands of visitors.

03. Yayoi Kusama Museum | Tokyo

▲Opening Commemorative Exhibition of Yayoi Kusama Museum

The museum founded by Yayao Kusama herself is a better choice to visit than any other limited or unlimited exhibition. In 2017, the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Benzentamachi, Shinjuku district, Tokyo.

At the end of April, Yayoi Kusama's new exhibition, Between Mystery and Symbol: Monochromatic Monochrome by Yayoi Kusama, opens. For a personal art museum, the things exhibited here are more in-depth and less popular than the well-known pumpkins and polka dots.

Canned desserts with red polka dots and pumpkins, sold only at the Yayoi Kusama Museum, are also an important attraction for viewers.

04. Pumpkin's Infinite Universe | Canberra

▲《The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens》, 2017

From December 2018, The Australian National Gallery in Canberra has been The permanent home of Yayoi Kusama's Goddoned Pumpkins masterpiece The Spirits of The Pumpkins Quadriga Into The Heavens. For the last two or three years, the work has been open to the public for free.

Rows of pumpkins are reflected numerous times by the mirror, and when you among them, you are immersed in an infinite universe composed of pumpkins. This work, combined with her signature polka-dot pumpkins and mirrored house setup, is also a more diverse set of ideas that we can explore from it.

05. Crowdfunding for a Piece of Installation by Yayoi Kusama | Toronto

▲ 《INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER》, 2017

When Kusama's exhibition came to the Art Museum of Ontario in 2016, people even lined the street to buy tickets. After the show ended, the Art Museum of Ontario bought Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room -- Let's Survive Forever through crowdfunding for $2 million, to make Kusama's work permanent.

In this infinite mirror room, the silver sphere is the main character, sitting irregularly at the foot of the mirror, which causes the spheres to form some regular arrangement.

06. Flowers That Bloom in Guangzhou | Guangzhou

"Flowers That Bloom in Guangzhou" is her only public art sculpture in China. It made its public debut at the end of 2016 in the IGC Art Park of Tianhui Square in Guangzhou, but few people paid attention to it.

It is also Kusama's biggest public art sculpture outside of Japan, with its highest point 7.5 meters above the ground. Yayoi Kusama created the work after learning the name of "Flower City" in Guangzhou. "The dots represent the touch of the endless vitality, and the flowers covered by the dots signify the radiance of love that never goes out," she said.

07. The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away On View | Los Angeles ( L.A)

▲ The Broad

▲ 《Infinity Mirrored Room-The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away On View》, 2013

In downtown Los Angeles, two classic works by Yayoi Kusama are collected at The Broad, an art gallery founded by two philanthropists.

The Infinite Mirror House, created in 2013, Kusama believes that the souls of millions of light-years alive. The room is entirely covered with mirrors, and ten LED lights create a myriad of reflected light, where everyone can be an observer of the world.

▲ 《Longing for Eternity》, 2017

The other "Infinite Mirrored Room" is filled with eternal longing. Even when peering through Windows-like plane portholes, the room filled with LED light can still bring visual immersion, and the extreme repetition allows a sense of infinity and transcendence to burst out.

08. Kusama Yayoi's Favorite | Tsumari in Bloom

"Of all the open-air sculptures I have created for Japan and the rest of the world, 'Tsumari in Bloom' is my favorite." That's what Yayoi Kusama said herself. So go to the fields of Echigo's wife district in Niigata City, and you'll see one of Kusama's favorite artworks.

Yayoi Kusama felt calmer than ever when she saw the colossal flower sculptures installed in the fields. She described herself as a flower bathed in the air of Tsumari in bloom and brilliant sunshine falling from the sky.

09. Love Forever, Singing in Towada| Aomori

There is a permanent collection of 38 commissioned works of art at the Modern Art Museum in Towada, Aomori county, including Love Forever, Singing in Towada, which was created especially for the county by Yayoi Kusama. The eight sculptures with Polka dot contain constant themes in Kusama: pumpkins, girls, puppies, and mushrooms.

A girl named Hanako-chan, the avatar of Yayoi Kusama, looks resolutely ahead and sings heartily in the fields, full of energy. The interior of the giant pumpkins is also fascinating, with colored spots twinkling in the darkness, inviting viewers into a world that is constantly spreading.

10. Matsumoto Art Museum | Matsumoto

Despite her strained relationship with her native city of Matsumoto, they eventually shared artistic ideas. Matsumoto Art Museum, which opened in 2002, is filled with her sculptures here and there, even its glass walls and vending machines where have been invaded by Kusama's polka dot.

11. You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies| Phoenix

Yayoi Kusama's lighting installation, You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies, is permanently housed in the Phoenix Museum of Fine Arts in the United States. In a dark room, the mirror reflects 250 colored LED lights. Visitors enter it, like being surrounded by fireflies at night. The inspiration for the work comes from a Japanese folk tale about a man who has 10,000 fireflies.

Since it's a permanent installation, there's almost no queuing to get in during the morning and evening of the workday, and you can enjoy a cyclic light show in peace.

12. "Narcissus Garden" at Lockaway Disused Factory | New York

▲ In 2018, in Rockaway, Yayoi Kusama installed the "Narcissus Garden" for a specific location.

For its summer heat and crowded city, The Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York is a popular destination for people looking for a break. Located in an old train garage in Tildenburg, the installation consists of 1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres. The Daffodil Garden made its first appearance in 1966 as part of an unofficial show at the 33rd Venice Biennale.

The spheres mirror the graffiti walls and rusting beams of the dilapidated building. While viewers stroll through the glittering gardens, they also get a glimpse of the damage Hurricane Sandy caused to the building and the area in 2012. Rockaway is the third iteration of the "Daffodil Garden" in 2018, which is said to be a "celebration" of resuming work for years.

13. Invite guests to cover the house with fake flowers | Victoria

▲ Flower Obsession 2017

Famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known for her explosions of color, matrices of light, and tendency to cover many of her works with dazzling layers of dots. In one of her most interactive installations, the artist conveys her interest in dot making to visitors. The Vanishing House invites guests to cover the interior of their home by putting colorful stickers on the walls, furniture, and floors.

In her recent commission for the inaugural National Gallery of Victoria Triennale, the artist has transformed this concept to include floral patterns. For this piece, Flower Obsession (2017), guests were given artificial gerbera daisies and Flower stickers that could be attached to any surface they chose. By the end of the four-month triennial, the flowers had completely covered the entire apartment. The floral theme touches on the beginning of the artist's artistic creation, referencing memories from her childhood.

14. Les tulipes de Shangri-la | Lille

▲ 《Les tulipes de Shangri-la》, 2004

In 2004, the French city of Lille became the European Capital of Culture. To this end, Yayao Kusama created a large public sculpture called Les Tulipes de Shangri-La, in which several polka-dot tulips grow in the middle of the Francois-Mitterrand Square, the tallest one reaching 8 meters. The vibrant colors collide with the surrounding grey buildings, bringing vitality to the tulips that belong exclusively to Yayoi Kusama.

15. Infinite Accumulation | London

Outside Liverpool Street station on London's Elizabeth Line, Kusama's first permanent art installation in the UK, Infinite Accumulation, will be completed, with her signature polka-dots transformed into flowing, mirrored steel balls that guide passengers from the public area outside the station to the east entrance.

"London is a city where people of all cultural backgrounds are constantly on the move," Kusama said. These spheres symbolize the unique individual, and the curves supporting the spheres allow us to imagine a fundamental social structure."

16. Beverly Garden Park | Los Angeles

▲ 《Hymn of Life: Tulips》, 2007

Taking a walk to Beverly Gardens Park, you can meet with some of Kusama's classic works. Hymn of Life: Tulips, 2007, is made of painted fiberglass, ceramic tiles, and steel. In the days when the tulips are dead, these "tulips" will always flourish.

17. Mattress Factory that doesn't sell mattresses | Pittsburgh

▲ 《Repetitive Vision》, 1996

In Pittsburgh, there is the Mattress Factory, which doesn't sell mattresses. Once a real factory, transformed into space for artists to place installations 40 years ago, it is now a landmark of Modern Art in Pittsburgh and the first art space in the United States to buy Kusama's work.

Many visitors remember these polka-dot dummies well, which come from Yayoi Kusama's book, Repetitive Vision, even in the world of repeated dots, but your mood are always new.

▲ 《Infinity Dots Mirrored Room》, 1996

Yayoi Kusama saw the mirrored house as a gateway to the other world. In this infinite mirrored room, with colored polka-dots on the floor, she powerfully evokes personal identity, a sense of reality, discussing broader questions about the permeability of the boundary between the self and the outside world.

18. The Only Permanent Narcissus Garden | Brazil

The iconic "Narcissus Garden" was one of nine new works of art collected at the Inhotim Institute, a famous art museum and botanical Garden in Brazil, in 2009. It is also the only place in the world with a permanent collection of "narcissus gardens".

In 1966, during the 33rd Venice Biennale, Kusama took her first "Narcissus Garden," 1,500 metal-coated plastic balls that she sold outside the pavilion for $2 each. She intended to satirize the commercialized art environment, and this set of works became an important turning point in her career.

It's time to say goodby~